I sure wish DirecTV had an actual instruction sheet for the RC71. The thing they call instructions is a one-page illustration just naming the individual functions of the buttons. And I say individual because Mute + Select is NOT a function of an individual button. In another thread ([Link: remotecentral.com]), it's pointed out that RF programming is done by holding Mute + Enter, not Mute + Select. Gee, that would have been in an instruction document, right?

I got some RC71s to have on hand and messed around (with IR only, of course) with my Pioneer plasma and HR24. For the Pioneer, you'd hold Mute + Select. Also, the RC71 doesn't program anything except TVs, with a weird situation -- sometimes when setting a TV code, the LED on the remote flashes red. This doesn't necessarily mean something is wrong, because it did that with the last code given for Pioneer TVs, which works mine.

Also, when you hold Mute + Select and then enter a 1, the remote flashes green twice... four more digits and it flashes again. But it behaves the same way with other initial digits, too, which implies to me that the remote is not programmed to respond to those digits, and is responding randomly; or perhaps that other functions are programmed in there but we don't have the proper instructions.

For instance, when you start with a 3, it looks like it will take a code. All of the Audio codes start with 3... and it doesn't seem to me completely necessary to have a slide switch... why couldn't a remote be made where, when you program it and the first digit is a 1, you program a TV; and when the first digit is a 3, you program an audio device; and when the first digit is a.... see how that could work?

I've already quizzed edmund about this. He no longer has DirecTV and he doesn't have an answer for this behavior.

Remote Programming is done through the directv GUI.

Not sure I follow you. I programmed an RC71 to turn on the Sammy TV but do volume up/down on a Denon AVR 1513 yesterday..,

Instructions soon to be included with RC71........

Contact Chuch Jr but the mail box is Full. You can send him an email but he is so overwhelmed that he may answer you in 3 -4 months.

LOL

For all the Pros out there I will continue to help with all your DirecTV questions when I am around.

Can I give you the number of the DirecTV "tech" I had on site last week that I had to how him how to program the RC71? Maybe you can teach him how to, you know, install DirecTV?

The RC71 isn't meant for the HR24....it will work but IR only.

The first part of this is true and the second part incompletely describes the facts.

My first post stated that I'm not trying to use it for RF with the HR24, so your comment ignores my agreeing with you beforehand.

As for IR, if it "will work but IT only," then you can program it like all the other remotes to control TVs, amplifiers, and even DVD players. My comments don't even really complain about whether it can or cannot be programmed for these devices. It complains that there are ZERO INSTRUCTIONS as to how to program this remote. See, since it SEEMS to be able to accept codes for devices other than TVs, it would be nice if some instructions addressed what it actually can do.

Okay, so you program it using the new receivers... do they allow you to program AVR control? How's it done with no slide switches?

AND others, I believe edmund, has told me that it is impossible to program it to control an A/V receiver. If it "will work but IR only," then it wil lcontrol AVRs. (Not AVR power, as that has always been iffy.)

So I'm looking for instructions to clear all this up.

So I am digging this thread up to add another item of issue. I am at a project now where the client has an HR44 Genie and a HR24 DVR. We are using Control4 for control. We ran into an issue with the IP driver and the Genie where the client HAD TO HAVE the "back" button. She uses it all the time. So seeing how the red, green, blue, and yellow buttons are no longer used on the HR44, I was easily able to map the Blue button on the C4 remote to the "back" command on the DirecTV driver. She is happy with that.

The problem? The HR24 upstairs still has the red, green, yellow, and blue functions so I cannot map the blue button to the "back" command here. The stupid thing is that although the RC71 will control the HR24 via IR, the GUI still shows the color icons, yet the remote has no such buttons.

Hahaha! Thank you DirecTV for updating the GUI and remote, but only making it annoyingly backwards compatible with your other products. Brilliant. I know...I know....first world problems. But who is designing these things?

Have you tried using the left cursor button as a Back button? I think I was looking at an RC71 once and I figured that must be the Back button now. Of course, this occurred to me after I wrote all this stuff:

I misunderstood your problem a moment ago and I went through the logic that would have you put the Back command on the Blue button. That should work.

So what's the problem upstairs? If the upstairs remote (totally assuming it's a C4 remote; you don't say) has the Back command mapped to the blue button,* it should work properly. I cannot remember when I've EVER pressed the blue button; the worst it will be is that you cannot perform that rare blue button function.

If you're using the RC71 upstairs, then yeah, you have no blue button and no Back button, which is dumb. If you want the Back button upstairs and you're not using a C4 remote, use an older DirecTV remote on the Hr24. Then you'll have a Back button.





*you say you want to "map the blue button to the 'back' command. I take it you mean "map the 'back' command to the blue button." The movable item is mapped to the target, so the command is mapped to the button, not the other way around.

Yes I said it wrong. My bad. You understood it fine. We are using a C4 remote upstairs as well, and I CAN map the back button to the blue button, but I know this client would surely ask me why the blue button does not work any longer (actually it would emit both codes, so I would actually just replace the "blue" command with the "back" command in the driver). :) So for that reason, I removed the Exit command from the Cancel button and replaced it with the Back command.

My suggestion for DirecTV would be to use the same GUI on all your boxes! I understand that since the RC71 will not control HR24 via RF, and the RC6x remotes have the color buttons, that you might as well have functions for those buttons to do. But since you changed it on the Genies, and the buttons that now control what the color buttons used to control exist on the RC6x remotes as well, I think it makes more sense to unify the UI across all devices and have 4 useless buttons on the remote, than to have 2 different methods to do the same thing on different receivers.

Rant over. :)

why dont you put a soft button on the lcd? isnt that what it is there for?

April fool's... Or is it fools?....was yesterday edizziedizzle. Very funny.

im being serious! cant you put custom buttons on the control4 handheld remote lcd screen for buttons that arent available as hard buttons?

ed, have you seen a control four remote? THEY ARE A JOKE!

I can put all kinds of custom buttons on there. It would be less of a headache to leave the DirecTV remote on the coffee table and reach over and press the damn button on it.